Adventure Dayssss

When my first son was younger my husband had days off during the middle of the week. We would go adventure to the park in the summer and to the magic house or coffee houses in the winter.

Now my husband is off on Saturday and Sunday. While I am so thankful to not have to brave every single one of our childrens' friends birthday parties solo, (except a lot of those suckers still fall on a Friday) we miss the opportunity to go out and adventure without the weekend crowds as a family. 

So Friday my hubby took off work because he had a live fantasy football draft. 

This is how I feel alotttt this time of year^^^^^ I am also thankful he gets to do something he loves. Anyway....so we got to take an adventure day with our little guy while our bigger guy was at school. Notice I didn't say big guy because they are still little, ok? To me they will always be little. No Growing Up! Sorry, not sorry. I have mom problems.

Anyway last Friday was rainy, and we love to adventure into the city and explore. So my hubby looked up kid friendly coffee shops, and we rolled out.

Another of my many goals this year was to hit a bunch of places on the coffee passport with my honey. I got it for him for Christmas this year.  I will link it, but it is currently out of stock.

This place we hit was not on the passport, and now I know why. 

It was totally cozy, and had lots of fun kiddo stuff, but the coffee was not my jam. 

I don't really do milk except in coffee and I prefer an alternative milk. 

Which I know most coffee snobs like it black. I can do black, but the coffee has to be exceptional. I had black coffee at Sump Coffee for my birthday last year and it was super good. Because Sump Coffee. Sump Now? (bad mom joke) 

Anyway I got an almond milk latte and it tasted sort of like cardboard. Which almond milk lattes tend to do except if you go somewhere awesome. Anyway my jam right now is oat milk lattes which you can find at a couple of exceptional places, one which is really close to me, and on the coffee passport:

Vb's

I've had it iced and hot. Both ways are delish. In any case here is a photo of my littlest homie there not that long ago. 

Then we went to Ikea with this cutie because my husband is obsessed, and we got a 3$ milk frother for our coffee. It's boss. The kid in this pic is boss. My husband is boss. 

We try to adventure with our kids if we can and explore the cool places around where we live. And if we are in the city you can bet that my husband is going to talk me into an IKEA trip. 

Stay on the lookout for more tips on places to hang with your kids in STL, drink good coffee, and go on a rainy day. 

The Adventurin' Momma,

Ven

Swing Life Away...

It has always been this way for me. That when life is hard, when I need some solace, I swing. The world around me moves and my thoughts come into focus.  I work through things in my head. Sort out the truth and the lies. Yell at people for pretend so I don't yell at them in real life. Have a hard phone conversation on the swing.

I am a 30 year old woman and the place I sort out my thoughts is the swing on the playset built by my husband, family and friends for my sons in the backyard.



I remember being a teenager in the dead of winter. Snow flurries falling around me kissing the landscape like a mother kisses a sleeping babe. I bundled myself up and went to the place where everything in the world made sense. I went swinging at the park down the street from my house. I walked there to hide away from the world. To figure it out.
I felt cocooned in the symphony of snow.



There was no ground under my feet to hold me to the earth. The air around me whooshing past as I dreamed and planned my future. The cold and my mind as crisp as a sweet golden delicious straight off the tree.

When the world is overwhelming for me, and it often is, I swing.
I mentioned this to some friends in the medical field and neither seem surprised. What have they diagnosed me with, without telling me?
ADD?

I have no idea... but I do know that often the world seems too much for me. So I swing, I pray.

Earlier this week rain was softly making pitter-patter on our skylights right after dusk, and my thoughts wouldn't stop. I went outside. I swung.
I let the drizzle hit my face, and cool my fears while the back and forth motion lulled me into my comfort zone. I talked to my creator.

 Back before medication and diagnosis were handed out like candy at a parade, people like me figured out coping mechanisms for when this world was too much. To be clear, I think that medicine and science are a gift from God. I tried some anxiety medication this year, and it reeked havoc on my stomach and it was not right for me. Try different things to see what works for you and your body. In this post I talk about swinging, praying, and mention oils, and music.

Swinging has always been one of my coping mechanisms. I wasn't always aware of it.

What I always have been aware of was this: Most people find me overwhelming.
What people don't know is this; I too find most people overwhelming.

I have always thought I was too much. How how I repeat myself, or am very loud, or try so hard is too much. How when I am comfortable around you I am basically a broadway musical with all the singing and dancing is too much. How large crowds make it hard for me to make eye contact is wrong.
It is not true that I am too much.
The truth is I was not made for this world.
This world is what is too much.
The Lord has shown me that.
That He created me just right.
That He didn't create me for this world.
That just because every day living my life in this world is hard no matter how numerous my blessings (and they are many) was because of me, is a lie.
It is hard because of sin and brokenness.
Sometimes it is hard because of lies from the devil and me overthinking.
Mostly though it is just a reminder that I need the Lord for every breath in this world. We all do.
Sometimes it is just more apparent than other times.
A word He gave me last night was " that I will always be broken in this world, and He will always be what holds me together."
Some days and moments I feel that brokenness more than others.
Always being broken might sound hopeless but always having a Father to hold me together is hopeful. He is hope itself.

Whether I am in swinging in the backyard, the park, in the rain or snow. He is listening. As the weight of the world flies off my shoulders into His arms.

I fight the world by praying. I cope with the world by swinging.

Where do you go for a healthy escape when the world is overwhelming? Who do you go to?

Soundtrack to this blog post is an oldie:
Swing Life Away by Rise Against

Essential oil accompaniment:
Release by Young Living

https://www.youngliving.com/en_US/products/release-essential-oil



Backyard Swingin',
                                Ven

Stay woke as I share my other coping mechanisms in upcoming days/weeks on the blog.

Swinging is used as therapy for different reasons. Maybe it is right for you.

FREEDOM IN KNOWING

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.  John 10:14

"Because He redeems and keeps us, there is no need to fear. This is a covenant relationship we may no fully understand in its mystery, but we can cling to it gratefully as recipients of grace this day."
- Ruth Chou Simons

Galatians 5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Freedom is the siren's song,
that doesn't dare to say,
it beckons,
waits for me to grasp
it's silent in its' way
for freedom Christ has set us free-
But I have yet to say
that I will answer faithfully
when within the siren's reach
I often whistle Freedom's tune
I often dance with her
but then I put her down again
like a holiday gone too soon
Why do I reach for slavery's yoke?
when Freedom's round the bend
Why do I toil, and bear, and hide
Why do I slave the day
like Freedom's just a holiday?

I think it gives freedom to share the most broken parts of ourselves.
Because He already knows. It is freedom to know His love. To give love out of the outpouring He gives.

If we are treating the love and freedom of the Lord as a sometimes light drizzle on a cloudy day that comes in and out of our life our outpouring will dwindle. If we treat it as the bountiful never ending spring it is, that we are always diving into, we will have plenty to share with others.

Do you know Him and the freedom He brings?


Diving In,
Ven

Taking Back Slow Sundays

I am on a mission to take back Sundays for me and my family.

To remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. To re-orient my heart to the one who made me. To remember the world keeps turning even if I do nothing. That He is the one who turns hearts and the world around me.

Maybe you think me writing on Sunday is a violation of the Sabbath day.

Truly though for me writing is an extension of me. It is me taking back.  It is sharing the truth and love that flows through my very veins into the deepest darkest crevices in my heart.

Isaiah 45:3
I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you make that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

How often do you feel treasured? How often are you reminded and remembering that is the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name?

So on Sundays we aim to do less, and remember more.

A Sunday tradition for my family and I if we don't have small group is to go treasure hunting at the flea market.
The truth is that one man's trash is another man's treasure is right in your face there.

The truth of that is we seek treasure there instead of the only place where treasure can be found. Colossians 2:3
In the person and words of the Lord, the God of Israel who calls us by our name.

Even when you feel like trash you are treasure to the Lord.
He will leave the 99 to find the one and only you friend.

When I went to TGC Kristie Anyabwile said something that has been ringing in my ears for about two months now. "We'll do comparatively little to spend more time with God."
This is why in Proverbs 2:4-5 That, "If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Are you seeking him friend?
Is He your treasure?
Is how you spend your time not only on Sundays but every day a reflection of that?

Sunday's is an opportunity to spend time with him, to rest and remember.
That He treasures you.
That He died for you.
So we should treasure Him.

He did not rest on Sunday because He had to. He rested on Sunday to set an example for you and I.

The treasures my family and I found today at the flea market are just jars of clay. They will crumble. They will pass away. Even if we do think they are pretty cool.
 They are also a good reflection of our aim on Sundays to read, play games, and just be together. One of my mannnnny goals this year was to introduce the boys to good literature. So two of these were pretty awesome scores for that goal.

The word and the love and the sacrifice of the Lord will endure forever.
The rest of Sunday will sustain you through your week.
So what can you cut out today to make it more restful?
We don't watch TV on Sundays (except for Sunday morning on PBS for my sweet old man tv loving husband)



Deuteronomy 14:2
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

You are a treasured possession of the Lord friend.  He went searching for treasure and chose you.
I hope you remember always.
I hope today this is a reminder.

Treasured and chosen,
Ven

Here is my "slow Sunday style'

Yes my earrings, and water, and (my unpictured shoes match) Judge me if you want. I tried to do lots of instagram worthy shots where I wasn't looking and I failed. So you get this. 

SLAY IN YO' LANE LIKE A MOTHER

SLAY IN YOUR LANE

Saw that on a letter board a while back and I haven't been able to kick it out of my mind.
Take on the things God has gifted you in those areas and slay.
Take on the areas God placed you in and slay.
Take on the people God has placed in your life and invest.
What about the areas that you know you aren't going to slay, but still need to do?
Like for me housekeeping is high on that list, of gotta do but ain't slaying.

Also clearly I have a letter board problem. Especially because my kid threw away all the letters to mine. O MY!
As a homemaker I have to continue owning that space. This doesn't mean my husband and kiddos can't help. A good scripture for this is Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, for the Lord and not for man.
Ephesian 6:7 Serve with good will, as to the Lord and not to men.

More than that slay in your lane reminds me that I am not going to slay motherhood like the gal next to me. I am going to slay motherhood like the person God created me to be.
I'm going to slay getting outside with my kids.

I am going to slay reading with my kids.
I am going to slay scripture memorization with my kids.
I am going to slay playing games with them.
I am going to slay dance parties.
I am going to slay doing ministry with them running around./community building.
I am going to slay feeding them healthy homemade meals.

How do you slay?

SLAY IN YOUR LANE Momma, you are doing a great job!